The best dog-friendly hikes and walks in Ferrara

It opens in the Rossetti walls at the end of Corso Ercole I d'Este. Born as a watchtower, it was the ancient access to the ducal hunting estate of Barco, located where the "G. Bassani" Urban Park is now located. Rampari di Belfiore, 1, 44121 Ferrara FE

Built between 1493 and 1497, the tower guarded the Porta of the same name located at the eastern end of the long decumanus of the Addizione Erculea. In 1518 Alfonso I d’Este decided to cover it with a conical roof grafted onto a massive pillar, while the battlements were filled in in the first half of the nineteenth century. After the French occupation of 1796, the Porta was named Porta Mare and the entire complex underwent various functional modifications. Since 1999, the Torrione di San Giovanni has hosted the Jazz Club Ferrara. Rampari di Belfiore, 167, 44121 Ferrara FE www.jazzclubferrara.com +39 331 432 3840

With its typical arrow shape and without truncheons on its sides, the bastion was built when Alfonso I d’Este decided to strengthen the defensive apparatus of the southeastern sector of the city. A short distance away flows the eighteenth-century San Tommaso doccile, built in 1524 to drain the city sewers.

Ancient Francolino Tower, Punta della Montagnola takes its name from an artificial hill prepared since the 16th century with the function of a high and privileged point. The work is the result of 17th century modernization works. Interesting is the decorative element of the "curb", placed at the top of the slope, which also had the function of hindering the climb of the attackers.

Grafted onto the curtain wall commissioned by Borso d’Este in the mid-15th century, the current Baluardo dell’Amore, with its characteristic ace of spades shape, was built over a century later. Between 1578 and 1585, Alfonso II d’Este promoted a significant strengthening of the southern fortifications near the Po, making use of military engineers. The Archaeological Park allows you to explore the remains of the curtain wall and the Porta d’Amore, beyond which is the ravelin from 1557. A walkway has been positioned above the curtain wall that connects the route of the walls, including the upper level of the Porta d’Amore.

A monumental gateway to the city, Porta Paola was built in 1612 based on a design by Giovan Battista Aleotti and dedicated to Pope Paul V, who was reigning at the time. Flanked by the bastions of San Paolo and San Lorenzo completed in the 17th century, the Gate was located in the center of the southern section of the walls and had military as well as customs functions. Like all the gates of Ferrara, during the French occupation it was renamed with a more republican name: Porta Reno. It therefore maintains the double name. It currently hosts the Associazione Strada dei Vini e dei Sapori della Provincia di Ferrara, which promotes the excellence of the Ferrara area in the fields of food and wine, cuisine and rural and artisan production, and the Documentation Center on the Este Walls which aims to raise awareness of the history of the mighty Renaissance fortifications with a series of thematic panels, films, models and multimedia applications. Opening hours (to be checked before planning the visit) Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30 to 12.30 Friday to Sunday from 9.30 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 17.30. Monday and Tuesday: closed. Free admission Piazza Travaglio – Ferrara +39 335 5980801 - 380 1468581 info@stradaviniesaporiferrara.it www.stradaviniesaporiferrara.it

A monumental gateway to the city, Porta Paola was built in 1612 based on a design by Giovan Battista Aleotti and dedicated to Pope Paul V, who was reigning at the time. Flanked by the bastions of San Paolo and San Lorenzo completed in the 17th century, the Gate was located in the center of the southern section of the walls and had military as well as customs functions. Like all the gates of Ferrara, during the French occupation it was renamed with a more republican name: Porta Reno. It therefore maintains the double name. It currently hosts the Association of the Wine and Flavors Route of the Province of Ferrara, which promotes the excellence of the Ferrara area in the food and wine, culinary and rural and artisan production fields, and the Documentation Center on the Este Walls which aims to raise awareness of the history of the mighty Renaissance fortifications with a series of thematic panels, films, models and multimedia applications. Opening hours (check before planning your visit) Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30 to 12.30 Friday to Sunday from 9.30 to 12.30 and from 14.30 to 17.30. Monday and Tuesday: closed. Free admission +39 335 5980801 - 380 1468581 info@stradaviniesaporiferrara.it www.stradaviniesaporiferrara.it

The bastion of San Giorgio is the result of the architectural interventions made, between 1521 and 1525, to the fourteenth-century Barbican of the same name: the surviving cylindrical guardhouse is still visible, the only testimony of the dozens of sentry boxes built during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries along the entire fortified circuit of the city.